In Praise of Bay

I heard Rick Sutcliffe or whoever mention this on last night’s telecast of the very depressing Rays – Red Sox ALCS game and had to verify it. It’s the comment by Bay at the end of this passage (lifted from this article):

Bay’s unflinching demeanor has helped carry him through these playoffs. He waited four years in the minor leagues to make the majors, and he waited five years in the majors to make the playoffs. When he struck out in his first two at-bats this postseason, he joked to teammates in the dugout, “That’s a big part of my game.”

It’s unusual, I think—and maybe there are cases I’m forgetting about—but it seems unusual to hear a talented player so at ease with an obvious weakness. Of course, Patriots fans will know that Tom Brady has always made light of his own lack of mobility, but there’s a general understanding that he can be (and has been) very successful without rushing at all. Bay’s comment is different, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s more along the lines of Brady saying that incompletions are “a big part of his game.”*

*I understand that many of baseball’s most effective hitters also carry high strikeout totals, but the great majority of fans are not comfortable with batters, no matter their VORP, who whiff frequently [see: Dunn, Adam].

The thing I like here is not only Bay’s frank admission of an apparent weakness, but also the humor—and obvious comfort—with which he acknowledges said weakness. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing. Regardless, I’ve decided that it might be a good technique to reappropriate both for this weblog and the curious Movement which it represents (and which, it should be added, is itself rife with weakness).

In that spirit, I’ve decided to turn some of my own lemons into lemonade via what I’ll now call The Bay Method. Feel free to try your own version at home. I’m calling mine:

SOME THINGS I SUSPECT ARE A BIG PART OF MY OWN GAME

1. Speaking only in my “outdoor” voice, despite hardly ever actually being outdoors.

2. Always calling this one guy Eric when his name’s actually Dave. That is, unless his name’s actually Eric and Dave is what I always call him. Crap.

3. “Celebrating” myself in public all the time.*

4. Marrying my adopted step-daughter.**

5. “Spreading” “Democracy”.***

6. Always saying “Say hi to your mom for me” in a more pervy way than I meant to.

7. “Sounding” my “barbaric yawp” in public all the time.*

8. “Promoting” “peace”.***

9. Casting myself as the male lead opposite ever-younger, more-barely-legal female leads in romantic comedies.**

10. “Praising” this “Glorious Union”.****

* Stolen from Walt Whitman.

** Stolen from Woody Allen.

*** Stolen from America’s Leaders.

**** Stolen from America’s Leaders and also probably Walt Whitman and Woody Allen.